Various types of cases have been designed mainly to enclose and protect electronic devices, especially, portable electronic devices such as mobile phones and portable music players. The cases can protect the devices from being scratched and cracked.
The electronic devices could have many different buttons or control devices, such as touch screen panel, back panel with a camera and a flash, a volume control button, and a power switch. The cases must be designed to fit and cover the device without hindering each button or switch, or without impeding any function operatable from the device surface.
For example, for a device with a camera lens and a flash equipped on the back panel, the case must have at least one hole in appropriate size to not become an obstacle for taking pictures and using the flash. The camera lens and flash hole should be aligned to keep [[a]] the camera lens and flash portions open and clear and at the same time should be small enough to not expose any unnecessary or enlarged openings, thus providing for both better appearance and for better device protection.
Because of the size of the device, the camera lens and flash are often positioned close to each other. In many instances the camera lens and flash are located on an approximately flat back panel of the device. The flash and camera lens each can be positioned at a bottom of a cylindrical hole below the back panel surface, so that the back panel has an approximately level surface. In this structure, when the back panel surface is translucent with or without color, the flash light emitted spreads out on the back panel surface, and the cylindrical or conical wall surrounding the camera lens is designed to prevent the flash light from reflecting back into the camera area in order to prevent any adverse effect on the resultant picture taken. However, when the device is covered by the translucent case, the flash light tends to travel through the case and then reflects on an edge surface of the camera lens hole of the case. When this happens the flash light causes an adverse effect on the resultant picture.